Drying machine



Jan. 9, 1934. B, A PARKES 1,942,828

DRYING MACHINE FiledJan. 28, 1932` zsheets-sheet 1 A M27 MZAMZ/ v BYATTORNEY.

Jan. 9, 1934. v B. A. PARKES 1,942,828v

DRYING MACHINE Filed Jan. 28, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTURNEY.

Patented Jan. 9, 1934 DRYING MACHNE Bertrand A. Parkes, Philadelphia,Pa.

Application January 28, 1932. Serial No. 589,324

1 Claim.

My invention relates to a new and useful drying machine which isparticularly adapted for the drying of sheet material, such as yardgoods and the like, wherein the flow of the hot air used for drying suchmaterial is accurately regulated to produce uniform drying.

In drying machines of this general character it is customary to providea chamber in which the material to be dried is placed, with blowersforcing the heated air'into said chamber, there being means foriirstheating said air to dehydrate it and render'it absorbent. ln machineso'f this general character known and used heretofore, the iiow of theheated air is only partially regulated and cannot be so controlled as toincrease the dow at one point where it would be necessary and todecrease it at another if that be necessary. Furthermore, machines ofthis general character are not adapted to retard the iow of air toprolong its contact with the material being dried, nor are they adaptedfor the control of the heated air to force it into uniform contact withall ofthe parts of the material being dried.

It is, therefore, the object 'oi my invention to produce a dryingmachine wherein the heated air can be directed and controlled andretarded as may be desired in accordance with the requirements of thematerial being dried, thereby increasing the eiciency and assuringcomplete uniformity.

To the above ends, my invention consists of a drying machine having adrying compartment adapted to receive the material to be dried, meansfor heating air, means for propellingthe heated air into said dryingchamber, and means for controlling the direction of the air. for varyingits volume at various points, and for controlling the rate of the airthrough the drying chamber, as well as means for forcing the air to passcompletely through the material being dried.

My invention further consists of various other novel features ofconstruction and advantage, all as hereinafter described and claimed incon-A nection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l represents a. vertical sectional view of a drying machineembodying my invention.

Figure 2 represents a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale showingdetails of construction of the air controlling mechanism. A

Figure 3 represents a foreshortened sectional view on'line 3-3, of Fig.l.

Figure 4 represents a fragmentary foreshortcned, sectional view on line4 4 of Figure 1, illustrating the manner of propelling the material tobe dried through the machine.`

Referring to the drawings in which like reference characters indicatelike parts, and more particularly to Figure 1 of the drawings, my novel6o drying machine consists of the outer casing which may be of anysuitable construction and which is generally divided into the heatingcompartment 1l which contains the heating coil 12 or other heating mediaand the hot air propelling 65 means, such as the fan i3 on the shaft 14which has the outer pulley and which may be driven by any suitablesource of power, which need not be shown. The compartment l1communicates with the upper chamber 16 through the port 18 7o to deliverthe air in the direction of the arrows 19. The compartment 22 serves asthe drying chamber for the material to be dried which is formed in loops20 depending from the rolls 2l which travel through the machine inendless Z5 fashion in a manner which forms no part of the presentinvention and which hence need not be shown or described in detail. Theupper chamber 16 communicates with the drying chamber proper 22 throughthe ports 23 which are provided with Se' the pendant, xed or stationarydeectors 24.- to guide or direct the air downwardly and cause it to flowin the direction oi the arrow through and between the adjacent sides ofthe loop of cloth 20, as will be best understood from Figure 4. 85 Undercertain conditions, the ports 23 and the battles or guides 24 aresumcient, but due to the propulsion of the fan i3 a stronger current ofair may pass through the far loops of fabric generally designated A thanthrough Athe near loops of 9o fabric generally designated B. Similarly,the material being dried in the near section B may be more moist or lessmoist than the material being dried in the section A, and hence it mightbe necessary to regulate the flow of the air through 9g these twosections of the drying compartment 22 according to the prevailingconditions. I have, therefore, divided the compartment 22 for thepurposes of air control and delivery into two sections and provided eachsection with movable 10c shutters which can be opened or closed in setsand independently of each other by the operation of two levers. Theconstruction of the shutters will be more clearly seen from Figure 2wherein each movable shutter 27 is rigidly secured to the 105 shaft 28which has the link 29 keyed thereto, said link being pivotally connectedat 30 to one or the other of the levers 3l or 32, depending on which setof shutters is considered. The levers 31 and 32 terminate'in suitablehandles 33 and 34 which are 110 pivoted at 35 to the casing 10 and whichare provided with pins to engage the holes 36 in the segment 3'7 toretain said levers in any adjusted position. If it is desired to shuton" or reduce the iioW of air over the section A o the material beingdried, the lever 3a is operated completely or partly to close themovable shutters 2'! directly above the section A. 'Ifne same is true ofthe manipulation or the shutters over the section B except that thelever 33 is operated. In order t0 force the air blown by the fan 13 topass completely through the material being dried, I provide the chamber22 with solid non-perforated vertical walls and with bottom outlets orports 40 which have the stationary baiiies or deflectors al and whichare controlled by the movable shutters 42 which are pivoted at 43 to thebar 44,said links being also connected to the rods d5 and a6 which arepivotally connected to the levers ll'l'and e8, so that the bottommovable shutters i2 can also be operated in sections corresponding tothe sections A and El above referred to. By manipulating the lowermovable shutters 42, I am enabled not only partly or completely to closeor open one or the other of the sections, but I also can retard orexpedite the iiov of air through the chamber 22 according torequirements. The air passing through the ports 40 then travels in thedirection of the arrows 50 and passes through the port 5l into theheating chamber ll. The loops of cloth 20 are thus exposed to anaccurately regulated or adjusted draft of heated air which is forcedthrough the material and which opens up the loops of material as shownin Figure 4. The adjustment or control of the air flowing into thematerial results in more emcient, expeditious and uniform drying, aswill be apparent.

While I have shown in the accompanying drawings the idea of dividing theshutters into two inreleases dependently operable sections .A and B, itis within the scope of my invention to divide the shutters into anydesired number of independently operable units, depending upon the widthof the machine or the width or different kind of the material to bedried, the principle of my invention being to direct the heated airvertically down through the material to be dried and to regulate the owof the heated air in accordance with requirements to produce uniformdrying.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

In a drying machine, a drying chamber adapted to receive a plurality ofpieces of Work to be dried, an air receiving chamber above said dryingwork in said drying chamber, means for actuating said sets o shuttersindependently, a bottom air receiving chamber communicating with saidair heating chamber, there being ports leading from said drying chamberinto said bottom cham ber, fixed baiiles coacting with said ports fordirecting the iiow of air therethrough, a plurality of sets of movable,adjustable shutters for'said ports corresponding to the plurality ofpieces of work in said drying chamber and said rst mentioned pluralityof sets of shutters, and means for actuating said last mentioned sets ofshutters independently of each other and of the first mentionedplurality 01' sets of shutters.

BERTRAND A. PARKES.

